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Sarah O'Connor

Employment columnist

Sarah O'Connor is a columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column focused on the world of work, as well as longer reported articles.

She joined the FT in 2007 and has covered the US economy from Washington DC, the UK economy from London and the financial crisis from Iceland.

Email Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnor_  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Tuesday, 8 July, 2025
    Driverless vehicles
    Why driverless vehicles just can’t quit humans

    Regulators need to ask more questions about the people in the shadows

    Aerial view of Waymo autonomous vehicles parked in a stage area in California
  • Tuesday, 1 July, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    In defence of the second-mover advantage

    In AI, the message ‘act now or miss out’ has more in common with high-pressure sales than business strategy

    Men and women using computers in an open-plan office
  • Wednesday, 25 June, 2025
    Global migration
    What has happened to Ukraine’s refugees?

    Strong labour markets, high education levels and policies allowing immediate work have helped them succeed

    Members of the Ukrainian diaspora unfurl a 100-metre Ukrainian flag in Poland
  • Tuesday, 17 June, 2025
    Employment
    The scourge of the non-compete clause

    They may look employer friendly but can stifle labour force fluidity and competition

    A non-compete agreement
  • Tuesday, 10 June, 2025
    Ageing Populations
    Who are you calling over-the-hill? The truth about brain ageing

    It’s not necessarily correct that our cognitive skills decline as we get older

    Woman sits on her sofa playing acoustic guitar
  • Tuesday, 3 June, 2025
    Technology
    ‘Vibe coding’ is the new DIY

    Large language models enable us all to create our own apps, but sometimes you need a professional

    A couple painting a wall as part of a DIY project
  • Tuesday, 27 May, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    Professionals are losing control of their work

    Tools which monitor, direct or organise processes may reduce the scope for employees to try new ways of doing things

    A crowd of people walking in the same direction, mostly dressed in business attire
  • Tuesday, 20 May, 2025
    Women in business
    Are female experts more credible?

    Public perception of stereotyped discrimination has one surprising outcome

    Janet Yellen
  • Tuesday, 13 May, 2025
    Minimum-Living wage
    The minimum wage is now coming for white-collar work

    It’s not destroying jobs but it is catching up with the lower rungs of graduate roles

    Two people walk through an outdoor seating area with green and black chairs in the City of London, surrounded by tall office building
  • Tuesday, 6 May, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    The AI arms race in hiring is a huge mess for everyone

    Companies were using automated screening earlier, but applicants’ adoption of the tools is now causing problems

    An applicant sitting an online job interview
  • Tuesday, 15 April, 2025
    Technology
    What can workers do if they’re fired by AI?

    Automated decisions are a source of under-appreciated tension in the UK government’s approach to low-paid employees

    A car with an Uber logo
  • Tuesday, 8 April, 2025
    Employment
    The US may be reversing course on child labour

    Acute strain on the jobs market has encouraged some states to consider reducing restrictions on employing minors

    children work as miners in  Pennsylvania
  • Tuesday, 25 March, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    A white-collar world without juniors?

    Professional business models may need to change if novices lose the opportunities to learn and progress when AI takes over their work

    Surgeons carry out a surgery with a da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system
  • Sunday, 23 March, 2025
    Work & Careers
    Side hustles, Zoom waves and the Great Casualisation: how Covid shaped new ways to work

    Five years after lockdown, what are the lasting effects and the forgotten pandemic trends?

    Illustration of people representing work from home, video calls, leadership and travel
  • Tuesday, 18 March, 2025
    Consumer trends
    Why do people keep buying printers they hate?

    A puzzling tale of capitalism and consumer psychology at a time of technological change

    A woman smashes a printer in a Rage Room
  • Tuesday, 11 March, 2025
    Employment
    What bankers and care home workers have in common

    Volatile pay is surprisingly prevalent in the British economy

    A woman and a man stand together with their arms crossed
  • Tuesday, 4 March, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    Students must learn to be more than mindless ‘machine-minders’

    Generative AI is a tempting short-cut that can prevent those at university from gaining foundational skills

    Exams in progress
  • Tuesday, 25 February, 2025
    UK employment
    Whatever happened to the great truck driver shortage?

    The underlying problems behind the crisis have not yet been resolved

    A driver after passing his HGV driving test at the National Driving Centre in Croydon in 2021
  • Tuesday, 4 February, 2025
    Social affairs
    What to do when the computer says no

    Simply adding a human review process to an algorithmic decision doesn’t make tricky trade-offs disappear

    App store with Gmail e-mail mobile app
  • Tuesday, 28 January, 2025
    Driverless vehicles
    Can self-driving cars save us from ourselves?

    Manufacturers promising greater safety have a problem: human drivers set the bar higher than you might think

    A Waymo self-driving Jaguar taxi stopped at a red light near Venice Beach in Los Angeles
  • Tuesday, 21 January, 2025
    Employment
    Anatomy of a jobs promise

    Eye-catching boosterism about employment from new projects does not always stand up to scrutiny

    A rendering of a proposed new data centre on land near Cambois, Northumberland
  • Tuesday, 14 January, 2025
    Ageing Populations
    Age is more than a number when it comes to policy

    Why how long people have been alive is not a good yardstick for judging who is ‘old’

    A woman swims in a lake
  • Tuesday, 7 January, 2025
    Employment
    How much sick pay is too much sick pay?

    The contrasting cases of Germany and the UK are revealing about policy trade-offs

    A sick pay now placard at a zero hour contracts protest.
  • Thursday, 26 December, 2024
    Technology
    Are we becoming a post-literate society?

    Technology has changed the way many of us consume information, from complex pieces of writing to short video clips

    Illustration of a torso of a robot connected to the torso of a woman so they make a mirror image
  • Tuesday, 17 December, 2024
    UK employment
    The gig economy is coming to a shop near you

    Apps that let retailers hire freelance staff by the shift are increasing in popularity

    Young ones promotional picture of a  younger person looking at her mobile phone while standing next to a black labradoodle
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